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Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares10+YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares10+YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>2013-07-012013-02-28OtherfalseiSHARES TRUST00011006632013-07-012013-07-01<b>Investment Objective</b>The iShares Agency Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of agency securities that are publicly issued by U.S. government agencies, and corporate and non-U.S. debt guaranteed by the U.S. government.iSHARES<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> AGENCY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: AGZ&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Fees and Expenses</b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example.</b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:2064113255iSHARES<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> 10+ YEAR CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: CLY&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares 10+ Year Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of long-term, investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds and U.S. dollar-denominated bonds, including those of non-U.S. corporations and governments, with remaining maturities greater than ten years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses <br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/> percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Portfolio Turnover.</b><b>Example. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 75% of the average value of its portfolio.This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Principal Investment Strategies</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 10% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of The BofA Merrill Lynch 10+ Year US Corporate &amp; Yankees Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which is a broad, market-value weighted, total rate of return index designed to measure the performance of the long-term, investment-grade U.S. corporate and Yankee bond markets. Component securities include publicly-issued debt of U.S. corporations and U.S. dollar-denominated, publicly-issued debt of non-U.S. corporations, non-U.S. government debt and supranational debt. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include sovereign entities, and financial, industrials and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br /><br />The securities in the Underlying Index have $250 million or more of outstanding face value, and have at least 10 years remaining to maturity or the first call date in the case of callable perpetual securities. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and have a fixed coupon schedule (or at least 10 years before the last call prior to the date the bond transitions from a fixed-rate to a floating-rate security). The Underlying Index is rebalanced on the last calendar day of each month, based on information available up to and including the third business day before the last business day of the month. <br /><br />As of December 31, 2012, the Underlying Index consisted of 1,550 U.S. dollar-denominated issues of supranational and national entities of, and corporate entities whose principal place of business is in, the following countries or regions: Aruba, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad &amp; Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index or in depositary receipts representing securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner &amp; Smith Incorporated (&#8220;BofA Merrill Lynch&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Custody Risk. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Financial Sector Risk.</b> Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br /><br /><b>Geographic Risk. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b>The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Non-U.S. Issuers Risk. </b>Securities issued by non-U.S. issuers carry different risks from securities issued by U.S. issuers. These include differences in accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, the possibility of expropriation or confiscatory taxation, adverse changes in investment or exchange control regulations, political instability, regulatory and economic differences, and potential restrictions on the flow of international capital. The Fund is specifically exposed to <b>North American Economic Risk.</b> <br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Reliance on Trading Partners Risk.</b> The Fund invests in countries whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund&#8217;s investments. Through its trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to <b>U.S. Economic Risk.</b><br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Security Risk. </b>Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns. Incidents involving a country&#8217;s or region&#8217;s security may cause uncertainty in these markets and may adversely affect their economies and the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Sovereign and Quasi-Sovereign Obligations Risk. </b>The Fund invests in securities issued by or guaranteed by non-U.S. sovereign governments and by entities affiliated with or backed by non-U.S. sovereign governments, which may be unable or unwilling to repay principal or interest when due. In times of economic uncertainty, the prices of these securities may be more volatile than those of corporate debt obligations or of other government debt obligations.<br /><br /><b>Structural Risk. </b>The countries in which the Fund invests may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk</b>. Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. <b>BFA EXPECTS THAT THE FUND MAY EXPERIENCE HIGHER TRACKING ERROR THAN IS TYPICAL FOR SIMILAR INDEX EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS.</b><br /><br /><b>Utilities Sector Risk. </b>The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight. Companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected due to increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<br /><br /><b>Valuation Risk. </b>The sale price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund&#8217;s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. In addition, the value of the securities in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund&#8217;s shares.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2010-09-30worst2010-12-311-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 6.52% in the 3rd quarter of 2010; the worst was -3.23% in the 4th quarter of 2010. <br /><br />Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).2009-12-08The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Agency Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the agency sector of the U.S. government bond market and is comprised of investment-grade U.S. dollar-denominated bonds or debentures issued by government and government-related agencies, including the Federal National Mortgage Association (&#8220;Fannie Mae&#8221;) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (&#8220;Freddie Mac&#8221;). As of December 31, 2012, there were 777 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index includes both callable and non-callable securities that are publicly-issued by U.S. government agencies, quasi-federal corporations (as described below), and corporate and non-U.S. debt guaranteed by the U.S. government. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. The Underlying Index includes securities of the following categories:<ul type="square"><li>government guaranteed securities: issuances that carry direct guarantees from the U.S. government;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li>government owned, not guaranteed, securities (&#8220;quasi-federal corporations&#8221;): issuances of entities that are partially or wholly-owned by the U.S. government, but carry no explicit guarantee of repayment; and</li></ul><ul type="square"><li>government sponsored securities: issuances of entities that are not 100% government owned and that have no guarantee, but carry out government policies and benefit from implied involvement of central governments, such as by benefiting from certain government subsidies, credit provisions, or other government support.</li></ul>The Underlying Index represents the agency portion of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index, whose eligible universe is defined by total market issuance, meeting the selection criteria mentioned above.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index by investing at least 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in investments that provide substantially similar exposure to securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>As of December 31, 2012, approximately 89.65% of the composite market value of the bonds represented in the Underlying Index were U.S. agency debentures issued by Fannie Mae, the FHLMC and the Federal Home Loan Bank System (&#8220;FHLB&#8221;).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks</b><b>Example. </b>64113255<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares1-3YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares1-3YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Agency Debt Risk.</b> The Fund invests in unsecured bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, including Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Bonds or debentures issued by government agencies are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the government agency issuing the bond or debenture and are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the federal government.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk.</b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk.</b> During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk.</b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Custody Risk.</b> Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk.</b> During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk.</b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>North American Economic Risk.</b> The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk.</b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<b>Performance Information</b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 2.49% in the 2nd quarter of 2010; the worst was -1.08% in the 4th quarter of 2010.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns</b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b>2008-11-05iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> 1-3 YEAR CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: CSJ&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares 1-3 Year Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate, sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds with remaining maturities between one and three years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/> (ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/> percentage of the value of your investments)</b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 8% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of investment-grade corporate debt and sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds that are U.S. dollar-denominated and have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than three years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 976 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and primarily include agency securities, and financial and industrials companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br /><br />The Underlying Index includes investment-grade credit securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than three years and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and bonds that have been issued in one country&#8217;s currency but are traded outside of that country in a different monetary and regulatory system (Eurobonds). The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund may also invest its other assets in futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Custody Risk. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Financial Sector Risk. </b>Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br /><br /><b>Geographic Risk. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b>The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Non-U.S. Agency Debt Risk. </b>The Fund invests in uncollateralized bonds issued by agencies, subdivisions or instrumentalities of foreign governments. Bonds issued by government agencies, subdivisions or instrumentalities are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the entity issuing the bonds and may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the foreign government. Moreover, a foreign government that explicitly provides its full faith and credit to a particular entity may be, due to changed circumstances, unable or unwilling to provide that support. A non-U.S. agency&#8217;s operations and financial condition are influenced by the foreign government&#8217;s economic and other policies.<br /><br /><b>Non-U.S. Issuers Risk. </b>Securities issued by non-U.S. issuers carry different risks from securities issued by U.S. issuers. These include differences in accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, the possibility of expropriation or confiscatory taxation, adverse changes in investment or exchange control regulations, political instability, regulatory and economic differences, and potential restrictions on the flow of international capital. The Fund is specifically exposed to <b>North American Economic Risk. </b><br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Reliance on Trading Partners Risk.</b> The Fund invests in countries whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund&#8217;s investments. Through its trading partners, the Fund is specifically exposed to <b>U.S. Economic Risk.</b><br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Security Risk. </b>Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns. Incidents involving a country&#8217;s or region&#8217;s security may cause uncertainty in these markets and may adversely affect their economies and the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Sovereign and Quasi-Sovereign Obligations Risk. </b>The Fund invests in securities issued by or guaranteed by non-U.S. sovereign governments and by entities affiliated with or backed by non-U.S. sovereign governments, which may be unable or unwilling to repay principal or interest when due. In times of economic uncertainty, the prices of these securities may be more volatile than those of corporate debt obligations or of other government debt obligations.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.20<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 5.09% in the 2nd quarter of 2009; the worst was -3.00% in the 3rd quarter of 2008. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31bestAs with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.2009-06-30worst2008-09-30The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com2007-01-05The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares13YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
best2010-06-30worst<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiShares1-3YearCreditBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
2010-12-31After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesBarclaysAgencyBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
<b>Example. </b>4885192<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesBarclaysAgencyBondFundBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares1-3YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares1-3YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesBarclaysAgencyBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesBarclaysAgencyBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> INTERMEDIATE CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: CIU&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares Intermediate Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate, sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds with remaining maturities between one and ten years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 7% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Intermediate Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of investment-grade corporate debt and sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds that are U.S. dollar-denominated and have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than 10 years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 5,165 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include agency securities, and financial, industrials and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br /><br />The Underlying Index includes investment-grade credit securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than 10 years and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and bonds that have been issued in one country&#8217;s currency, but are traded outside of that country in a different country and regulatory system (Eurobonds). The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Custody Risk. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Financial Sector Risk. </b>Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br /><br /><b>Geographic Risk. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b>The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Non-U.S. Agency Debt Risk. </b>The Fund invests in uncollateralized bonds issued by agencies, subdivisions or instrumentalities of foreign governments. Bonds issued by government agencies, subdivisions or instrumentalities are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the entity issuing the bonds and may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the foreign government. Moreover, a foreign government that explicitly provides its full faith and credit to a particular entity may be, due to changed circumstances, unable or unwilling to provide that support. A non-U.S. agency&#8217;s operations and financial condition are influenced by the foreign government&#8217;s economic and other policies.<br /><br /><b>Non-U.S. Issuers Risk. </b>Securities issued by non-U.S. issuers carry different risks from securities issued by U.S. issuers. These include differences in accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, the possibility of expropriation or confiscatory taxation, adverse changes in investment or exchange control regulations, political instability, regulatory and economic differences, and potential restrictions on the flow of international capital. The Fund is specifically exposed to <b>North American Economic Risk. </b><br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Reliance on Trading Partners Risk. </b>The Fund invests in countries whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>Utilities Sector Risk. </b>The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight. Companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected due to increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 6.98% in the 2nd quarter of 2009; the worst was -5.48% in the 3rd quarter of 2008.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comPast performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U. S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-06-30worst2008-09-302064113255<b>Investment Objective </b><b>Fees and Expenses </b>iSHARES<sup >&#174;</sup> 1-3 YEAR TREASURY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: SHY&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE ArcaThe iShares 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between one and three years.The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 104% of the average value of its portfolio.This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 1-3 Year Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than three years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 71 issues in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than three years, are rated investment-grade, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.15As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>www.iShares.com<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b><b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>2007-01-05The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 3.09% in the 1st quarter of 2008; the worst was -1.16% in the 2nd quarter of 2004. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-03-31worst2004-06-30<b>Average Annual Total Returns <br/>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2002-07-22<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares13YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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<b>Example. </b>4885192<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares3-7YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares3-7YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares 3-7 Year Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between three and seven years.iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> 3-7 YEAR TREASURY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: IEI&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 3-7 Year Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to three years and less than seven years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 95 issues in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to three years and less than seven years and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Performance Information </b>15The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comThe Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 51% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b><b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 7.40% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -2.95% in the 2nd quarter of 2009. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2009-06-30<b>Average Annual Total Returns <br/>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2007-01-05<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares37YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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<b>Example. </b>4885192<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares7-10YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares7-10YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><b>Investment Objective </b>iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> 7-10 YEAR TREASURY BOND ETF <br/>Ticker: IEF&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE ArcaThe iShares 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between seven and ten years.<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 7-10 Year Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to seven years and less than ten years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 21 issues in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to seven years and less than 10 years and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.151-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 47% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b><b>Summary of Principal Risks </b><b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 12.23% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -5.25% in the 2nd quarter of 2009. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2009-06-30iSHARES<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: CFT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective</b>The iShares Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate, sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds.<b>Fees and Expenses</b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares710YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiShares7-10YearTreasuryBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
<b>Example.</b>20This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:206411325564113255<b>Portfolio Turnover.</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 10% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies</b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of investment-grade corporate debt and sovereign, supranational, local authority and non-U.S. agency bonds that are U.S. dollar denominated and have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year. As of December 31, 2012, there were 5,165 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include financial, industrials and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes investment-grade credit securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and bonds that have been issued in one country&#8217;s currency, but are traded outside of that country in a different country and regulatory system (Eurobonds). The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks</b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk.</b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk.</b> During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk.</b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Custody Risk.</b> Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk.</b> During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Financial Sector Risk.</b> Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br/><br/><b>Geographic Risk.</b> A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk.</b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Industrials Sector Risk.</b> The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Non-U.S. Issuers Risk.</b> Securities issued by non-U.S. issuers carry different risks from securities issued by U.S. issuers. These include differences in accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, the possibility of expropriation or confiscatory taxation, adverse changes in investment or exchange control regulations, political instability, regulatory and economic differences, and potential restrictions on the flow of international capital. The Fund is specifically exposed to <b>North American Economic Risk</b>.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Reliance on Trading Partners Risk.</b> The Fund invests in countries whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk.</b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Sovereign and Quasi-Sovereign Obligations Risk.</b> The Fund invests in securities issued by or guaranteed by non-U.S. sovereign governments and by entities affiliated with or backed by non-U.S. sovereign governments, which may be unable or unwilling to repay principal or interest when due. In times of economic uncertainty, the prices of these securities may be more volatile than those of corporate debt obligations or of other government debt obligations.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>Utilities Sector Risk.</b> The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight. Companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected due to increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<b>Performance Information</b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> INTERMEDIATE GOVERNMENT/ CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: GVI&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 8.44% in the 2nd quarter of 2009; the worst was -6.63% in the 3rd quarter of 2008.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares10YearCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiShares10+YearCreditBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
<b>Average Annual Total Returns</b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b><b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares Intermediate Government/Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated government, government-related and investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds with remaining maturities between one and ten years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses</b><br/><b>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a</b><br/><b>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 15% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Intermediate Government/Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated U.S. Treasury bonds, government-related bonds (i.e., U.S. and non-U.S. agencies, sovereign, supranational and local authority debt) and investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year and less than 10 years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 4,480 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include agency and treasury securities, and industrials companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br /><br />The Underlying Index includes U.S. government and investment-grade credit securities that have a greater than or equal to one year and less than 10 years remaining to maturity and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. Also excluded from the Underlying Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and Eurobonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Agency Debt Risk. </b>The Fund invests in unsecured bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, including the Federal National Mortgage Association (&#8220;Fannie Mae&#8221;) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (&#8220;Freddie Mac&#8221;). Bonds or debentures issued by government agencies are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the government agency issuing the bond or debenture and are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the federal government.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Custody Risk. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Geographic Risk. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b>The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>North American Economic Risk. </b>The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 5.42% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -1.45% in the 2nd quarter of 2008.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns</b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comAfter-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2008-06-302007-01-05You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).20Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.2007-01-05The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-06-30worst2008-09-30<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesIntermediateGovernmentCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediShares10-20YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediShares10-20YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div><b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>15284887851521923432007-01-05The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2011-09-30worst2010-12-31<b>Average Annual Total Returns <br/>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2002-07-22iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> 10-20 YEAR TREASURY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: TLH&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective</b>The iShares 10-20 Year Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between ten and twenty years.<b>Fees and Expenses</b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesGovernmentCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div><b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)<b>Example.</b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> GOVERNMENT/CREDIT BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: GBF&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Portfolio Turnover.</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 12% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies</b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 10-20 Year Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 10 years and less than 20 years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 17 issues in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 10 years and less than 20 years and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of its Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks</b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /> <b>Asset Class Risk.</b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk.</b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk.</b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk</b>. Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk.</b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk.</b> U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information</b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 15.81% in the 3rd quarter of 2011; the worst was -6.66% in the 4th quarter of 2010.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).www.iShares.com<b>Investment Objective</b>1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)The iShares Government/Credit Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated government, government-related and investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds.<b>Average Annual Total Returns</b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b><b>Fees and Expenses</b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example.</b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:2064113255<b>Portfolio Turnover.</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 14% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies</b>iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> MBS ETF<br/>Ticker: MBB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares MBS ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of investment-grade mortgage-backed pass-through securities issued and/ or guaranteed by U.S. government agencies.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. &#8220;Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses&#8221; reflect the Fund&#8217;s pro rata share of the fees and expenses incurred by investing in other investment companies. The impact of Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses is included in the total returns of the Fund. Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not used to calculate the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;) and are not included in the calculation of the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;). <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses</b><br/><b>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a</b><br/><b>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 581% of the average value of its portfolio.The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of U.S. dollar-denominated U.S. Treasury bonds, government-related bonds (i.e., U.S. and foreign agencies, sovereign, supranational and local authority debt) and investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to one year. As of December 31, 2012, there were 6,168 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include agency and treasury securities, and financial and industrials companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes U.S. government and investment-grade credit securities that have greater than or equal to one year remaining to maturity and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. Also excluded from the Underlying Index are structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and Eurobonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b><b>Summary of Principal Risks</b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. MBS Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of investment-grade mortgage-backed pass-through securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association (&#8220;Fannie Mae&#8221;), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (&#8220;Freddie Mac&#8221;) and Government National Mortgage Association (&#8220;Ginnie Mae&#8221;). The Underlying Index includes fixed-rate mortgage-backed pass-through securities issued by Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that have 30-, 20-, 15-year maturities, as well as hybrid adjustable rate mortgages (&#8220;ARMs&#8221;). All securities in the Underlying Index must have a remaining weighted average maturity of at least one year; hybrid ARMs must be at least one year away from initial reset, must be investment-grade, and must have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be non-convertible. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br /><br />The Fund seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index by investing at least 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in investments that provide substantially similar exposure to securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br /><br />As of December 31, 2012, approximately 100% of the bonds represented in the Underlying Index were U.S. agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities. The Underlying Index is represented by approximately 97.36% fixed-rate mortgages and 2.64% hybrid ARMs. Most transactions in mortgage-backed pass-through securities occur through standardized contracts for future delivery in which the exact mortgage pools to be delivered are not specified until a few days prior to settlement (&#8220;to-be-announced (TBA) transactions&#8221;). The Fund may enter into such contracts for fixed-rate pass-through securities on a regular basis. The Fund, pending settlement of such contracts, will invest its assets in liquid, short-term instruments, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund will assume its pro rata share of the fees and expenses of any money market fund that it may invest in, in addition to the Fund&#8217;s own fees and expenses. The Fund may also acquire interests in mortgage pools through means other than such standardized contracts for future delivery.<br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s NAV, trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Agency Debt Risk. </b>The Fund invests in unsecured bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae. Bonds or debentures issued by government agencies are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the government agency issuing the bond or debenture and are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the federal government.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>High Portfolio Turnover Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities. High portfolio turnover (higher than 100%) may result in increased transaction costs to the Fund, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark-ups and other transaction costs on the sale of the securities and on reinvestment in other securities.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. The Fund invests in municipal bonds of issuers that are primarily state or local governments or agencies. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. </b>The Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities, some of which may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Mortgage-backed securities are subject to call risk and extension risk. Because of these risks, mortgage-backed securities react differently to changes in interest rates than other bonds. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain mortgage-backed securities. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a TBA transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss.<br /><br /><b>North American Economic Risk. </b>The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Prospectus.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 3.83% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -0.77% in the 2nd quarter of 2008.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not used to calculate the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;) and are not included in the calculation of the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comAfter-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2008-06-30<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares1020YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiShares10-20YearTreasuryBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesCoreLong-TermU.S.BondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesCoreLong-TermU.S.BondETF column period compact * ~</div><b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares Core Long-Term U.S. Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated government, government-related and investment-grade U.S. corporate bonds with remaining maturities greater than ten years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> CORE LONG-TERM U.S. BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: ILTB &nbsp; Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 50% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesCaliforniaAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesCaliforniaAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Long Government/Credit Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which is a sub-index of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index and provides exposure to securities in the long maturity range of the Barclays U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index. The Barclays U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index is comprised of two combined indexes, the Barclays U.S. Government Bond Index and the Barclays U.S. Credit Bond Index, each of which is a subcomponent of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. The Barclays U.S. Government Bond Index includes treasuries (i.e., public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have remaining maturities of more than one year) and agencies (i.e., publicly-issued debt of U.S. government agencies, quasi-federal corporations, and corporate or foreign debt guaranteed by the U.S. government). The Barclays U.S. Credit Bond Index includes publicly-issued, U.S. dollar-denominated, corporate, sovereign, supranational and local authority debentures and secured notes that meet specified maturity, liquidity, and quality requirements. As of December 31, 2012, there were 1,685 issues in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include treasury securities, and financial, industrials and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br /><br />The securities in the Underlying Index have $250 million or more par amount outstanding and have at least 10 years remaining to maturity, or at least 10 years remaining to the first call date in the case of callable perpetual securities. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and be non-convertible. The securities must be either a U.S. government security, a government-related security, or corporate security and must be rated investment-grade (Baa3/BBB-/BBB-) or higher using the middle rating of Moody&#8217;s Investors Service, Inc., Standard and Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services, or Fitch, Inc. after dropping the highest and lowest available ratings. When a rating from only two agencies is available, the lower (&#8220;more conservative&#8221;) rating is used. When a rating from only one agency is available, then that rating is used to determine index eligibility. The Underlying Index is rebalanced on the last business day of each month. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index or in depositary receipts representing securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesiBoxx$InvestmentGradeCorporateBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesiBoxx$InvestmentGradeCorporateBondETF column period compact * ~</div>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /> <b>Asset Class Risk. </b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /> <b>Call Risk</b><b>.</b> During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /> <b>Concentration Risk. </b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /> <b>Credit Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /> <b>Custody Risk</b><b>.</b> Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /> <b>Extension Risk. </b> During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /> <b>Financial Sector Risk</b><b>.</b> Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br /><br /> <b>Geographic Risk</b><b>.</b> A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /> <b>Income Risk. </b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /> <b>Index-Related Risk</b>. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /> <b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b> The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /> <b>Interest Rate Risk</b><b>.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /> <b>Issuer Risk</b><b>.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /> <b>Liquidity Risk</b><b>.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /> <b>Management Risk</b><b>.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /> <b>Market Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /> <b>Market Trading Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /> <b>North American Economic Risk</b><b>.</b> The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /> <b>Passive Investment Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /> <b>Securities Lending Risk. </b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /> <b>Security Risk</b><b>.</b> Some countries and regions in which the Fund invests have experienced security concerns. Incidents involving a country&#8217;s or region&#8217;s security may cause uncertainty in these markets and may adversely affect their economies and the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /> <b>Structural Risk</b><b>.</b> The countries in which the Fund invests may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability.<br /><br /> <b>Tracking Error Risk</b><b>.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. <b>BFA EXPECTS THAT THE FUND MAY EXPERIENCE HIGHER TRACKING ERROR THAN IS TYPICAL FOR SIMILAR INDEX EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS.</b><br /><br /><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b> U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.<br /><br /> <b>Utilities Sector Risk. </b> The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight. Companies in the utilities sector may be adversely affected due to increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<br /><br /> <b>Valuation Risk</b><b>.</b> The sale price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund&#8217;s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. In addition, the value of the securities in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund&#8217;s shares.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 15.37% in the 3rd quarter of 2011; the worst was -5.46% in the 4th quarter of 2010. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>1239681542009-12-08You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> iBOXX $ INVESTMENT GRADE CORPORATE BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: LQD&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 5% of the average value of its portfolio.You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:154885192<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Markit iBoxx<sup>&#174;</sup> USD Liquid Investment Grade Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which is a rules-based index consisting of liquid, U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate bonds for sale in the United States, as determined by the index provider. The Underlying Index is designed to provide a broad representation of the U.S. dollar-denominated liquid investment-grade corporate bond market. The Underlying Index is a modified market-value weighted index with a cap on each issuer of 3%. There is no limit to the number of issues in the Underlying Index, but as of December&nbsp;31, 2012, the Underlying Index included approximately 1,085 constituents. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include consumer services, financial, and oil and gas companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a subset of the Markit iBoxx USD Corporate Bond Index, an index of over 3,608 investment-grade bonds. Bonds in the Underlying Index are selected from the universe of eligible bonds in the Markit iBoxx USD Corporate Bond Index using defined rules. Currently, the bonds eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index include U.S. dollar-denominated corporate bonds that: (i)&nbsp;are issued by companies domiciled in countries classified as developed markets by the Index Provider; (ii)&nbsp;are rated investment-grade by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;), Moody&#8217;s Investors Services (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;) or Standard&nbsp;&amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services; (iii)&nbsp;are from issuers with at least $2&nbsp;billion outstanding face value; (iv)&nbsp;have at least $750 million of outstanding face value; and (v)&nbsp;have at least three years to maturity.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in investment-grade corporate bonds. The Fund also may invest in bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Markit Indices Limited (&#8220;Markit&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk</b><b>. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Consumer Services Sector Risk. </b>The consumer services sector may be affected by changes in the domestic and international economy, exchange rates, competition, consumers&#8217; disposable income and consumer preferences.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Custody Risk</b><b>. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Financial Sector Risk</b><b>. </b>Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br/><br/><b>Geographic Risk</b><b>. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b><b></b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk</b><b>. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk</b><b>. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk</b><b>. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk</b><b>. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>North American Economic Risk</b><b>. </b>The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Oil and Gas Sector Risk. </b>Companies in the oil and gas sector are affected by worldwide energy prices and exploration and production costs. Companies in the oil and gas sector may have significant operations in areas at risk for natural disasters, social unrest and environmental damage. These companies may also be at risk for increased government regulation and intervention, litigation, and negative publicity and perception.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk</b><b>. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> CALIFORNIA AMT-FREE MUNI BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: CMF&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE ArcaPast performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December&nbsp;31)The expense information has been restated, as of the Fund&#8217;s most recent fiscal year end, to reflect current fees.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 9.02% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -7.79% in the 3rd quarter of 2008.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2008-09-30www.iShares.com1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)<b><b>Average Annual Total Returns<br/>(for the periods ended December&nbsp;31, 2012)</b>2002-07-22After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares California AMT-Free Muni Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of investment-grade municipal bonds issued in the State of California.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a <br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 6% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesiBoxxInvestmentGradeCorporateBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesiBoxx$InvestmentGradeCorporateBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the S&amp;P California AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">TM</sup> (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the investment-grade segment of the California municipal bond market. As of December 31, 2012, there were 1,720 issues in the Underlying Index. Components primarily include transportation and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a subset of the S&amp;P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">TM</sup> and is comprised of municipal bonds issued in the State of California. The Underlying Index includes municipal bonds from issuers in the State of California that are California state or local governments or agencies whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal and California state income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax (&#8220;AMT&#8221;). Each bond must have a rating of at least BBB- by Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services, Baa3 by Moody&#8217;s Investors Service, Inc. (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;), or BBB- by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;). A bond must be rated by at least one of the three rating agencies in order to qualify for the Underlying Index. For the avoidance of doubt, the lowest rating will be used in determining if the bond is investment-grade. Each bond must be denominated in U.S. dollars. Each bond in the Underlying Index must be a constituent of an offering where the original offering amount was at least $100 million. The bond must have a minimum par amount of $25 million to be eligible for inclusion. To remain in the Underlying Index, bonds must maintain a minimum par amount greater than or equal to $25 million as of the next rebalancing date. In addition, each bond must have a minimum term to maturity and/or pre-refunded or call date greater than or equal to one calendar month to be included in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is a market-value weighted index, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated after the close on the last business day of each month. <br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and generally invests 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in securities that provide substantially similar exposure to the securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in municipal bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund generally holds municipal bond securities issued by the State of California and its municipalities whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal and California state income tax, the federal AMT and the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221; In addition, the Fund intends to invest any cash assets in one or more municipal money market funds, which may be advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a product of an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (&#8220;S&amp;P&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2011-09-30worst2010-12-31As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>California Municipal Securities Risk. </b>Because the Fund invests substantially in California municipal instruments, it is more exposed to the impact of negative political, economic and statutory factors within the State of California than a fund that invests more widely.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/> <b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/> <b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/> <b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices. The Fund invests a significant portion of its portfolio in municipal securities, which may be less liquid than taxable bonds.<br/><br/> <b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. The recent financial crisis has caused a decrease in the value and liquidity of many securities, including certain municipal securities, and has adversely affected many issuers of municipal securities and may continue to do so.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/> <b>Municipal Securities Risk. </b>Municipal securities can be significantly affected by political or economic changes as well as uncertainties in the municipal market related to taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. Municipal securities backed by current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets can be negatively affected by the inability to collect revenues for the project or from the assets.<br/><br/> <b>Non-Diversification Risk. </b>The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets in securities issued by or representing a small number of issuers. As a result, the Fund&#8217;s performance may depend on the performance of a small number of issuers.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tax Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund&#8217;s income will be exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, the federal AMT or the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221;<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions, or as a result of certain features of index construction that pose challenges in light of tax and regulatory considerations. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>Transportation Sector Risk. </b>The transportation sector may be adversely affected by economic changes, fuel prices, labor relations, insurance costs and government regulations.<br/><br/><b>Utilities Sector Risk. T</b>he utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight, and may be adversely affected by increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>www.iShares.com1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 8.29% in the 3rd quarter of 2009; the worst was -5.66% in the 4th quarter of 2010. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2680141318<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesCoreTotalU.S.BondMarketETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesCoreTotalU.S.BondMarketETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesNationalAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesNationalAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesCoreLongTermUSBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares National AMT-Free Muni Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of investment-grade U.S. municipal bonds.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>On October 23, 2012, the Fund&#8217;s Underlying Index changed from The BofA Merrill Lynch 10+ Year US Corporate &amp; Government Index<sup>SM</sup> to the current Underlying Index, the Barclays U.S. Long Government/Credit Bond Index. Historical index data prior to October 23, 2012 is that of The BofA Merrill Lynch 10+ Year US Corporate &amp; Government Index<sup>SM</sup>; data after that date is that of the Barclays U.S. Long Government/Credit Bond Index.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. &#8220;Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses&#8221; reflect the Fund&#8217;s pro rata share of the fees and expenses incurred by investing in other investment companies. The impact of Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses is included in the total returns of the Fund. Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not used to calculate the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;) and are not included in the calculation of the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;). BFA, the investment adviser to the Fund, has contractually agreed to waive its management fees in an amount equal to the Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses attributable to the Fund&#8217;s investments in other iShares funds through June 30, 2015. The contractual waiver may be terminated prior to June 30, 2015 only upon written agreement of the Trust and BFA. During the most recently completed fiscal year, the amount of such expenses incurred and fees waived rounded to 0.00%. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:best2009-09-30worst2010-12-31You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesCoreLong-TermU.S.BondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
June 30, 2015Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not used to calculate the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;) and are not included in the calculation of the ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses <br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/> percentage of the value of your investments)</b>2007-10-04<b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:2680141318<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 9% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the S&amp;P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup>TM</sup> (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the investment-grade segment of the U.S. municipal bond market. As of December 31, 2012, there were 9,357 issues in the Underlying Index. Components primarily include transportation and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes municipal bonds from issuers that are primarily state or local governments or agencies (including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and U.S. territories such as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam) such that the interest on each bond is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax (&#8220;AMT&#8221;). Each bond must have a rating of at least BBB- by Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services, Baa3 by Moody&#8217;s Investors Service, Inc. (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;), or BBB- by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;). A bond must be rated by at least one of the three rating agencies in order to qualify for the Underlying Index. For the avoidance of doubt, the lowest rating will be used in determining if the bond is investment-grade. Each bond must be denominated in U.S. dollars. Each bond in the Underlying Index must be a constituent of an offering where the original offering amount was at least $100 million. The bond must have a minimum par amount of $25 million to be eligible for inclusion. To remain in the Underlying Index, bonds must maintain a minimum par amount greater than or equal to $25 million as of the next rebalancing date. In addition, each bond must have a minimum term to maturity and/or pre-refunded or call date greater than or equal to one calendar month to be included in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is a market-value weighted index, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated after the close on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund.<br/><br/>&#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and generally invests 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in securities that provide substantially similar exposure to the securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in municipal bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund will generally hold municipal bond securities issued by state and local municipalities whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal income tax, the federal AMT and the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221; In addition, the Fund intends to invest any cash assets in one or more affiliated municipal money market funds, which may be advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may invest in shares of other iShares funds that provide substantially similar exposure to the securities in the Underlying Index. BFA will waive management fees in an amount equal to the management fees paid by the Fund indirectly as a result of its investment in other iShares funds.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a product of an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (&#8220;S&amp;P&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comPast performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s NAV, trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices. The Fund invests a significant portion of its portfolio in municipal securities, which may be less liquid than taxable bonds.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. The recent financial crisis has caused a decrease in the value and liquidity of many securities, including certain municipal securities, and has adversely affected many issuers of municipal securities and may continue to do so.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;s SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Municipal Securities Risk. </b>Municipal securities can be significantly affected by political or economic changes as well as uncertainties in the municipal market related to taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. Municipal securities backed by current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets can be negatively affected by the inability to collect revenues for the project or from the assets.<br/><br/><b>North American Economic Risk. </b>The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tax Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund&#8217;s income will be exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, the federal AMT or the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221;<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>Transportation Sector Risk. </b>The transportation sector may be adversely affected by economic changes, fuel prices, labor relations, insurance costs and government regulations.<br/><br/><b>Utilities Sector Risk. </b>The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight, and may be adversely affected by increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Prospectus. If BFA had not waived certain Fund fees during certain periods, the Fund&#8217;s returns would have been lower.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 7.04% in the 3rd quarter of 2009; the worst was -4.85% in the 4th quarter of 2010.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-09-30worst2010-12-311-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesNewYorkAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesNewYorkAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesShort-TermNationalAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesShort-TermNationalAMT-FreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div>iSHARES<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> NEW YORK AMT-FREE MUNI <br/>BOND ETF <br/>Ticker: NYF&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b><b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses <br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a <br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 10% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the S&amp;P New York AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">TM </sup>(the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the investment-grade segment of the New York municipal bond market. As of December 31, 2012, there were 1,696 issues in the Underlying Index. Components primarily include transportation and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a subset of the S&amp;P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">TM </sup>and is comprised of municipal bonds issued in the State of New York. The Underlying Index includes municipal bonds from issuers in the State of New York that are New York state or local governments or agencies whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal and New York state income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax (&#8220;AMT&#8221;). Each bond must have a rating of at least BBB- by Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services, Baa3 by Moody&#8217;s<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> Investors Service, Inc. (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;), or BBB- by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;). A bond must be rated by at least one of the three rating agencies in order to qualify for the index. For avoidance of doubt, the lowest rating will be used in determining if the bond is investment-grade. Each bond must be denominated in U.S. dollars. Each bond in the Underlying Index must be a constituent of an offering where the original offering amount was at least $100 million. The bond must have a minimum par amount of $25 million to be eligible for inclusion. To remain in the Underlying Index, bonds must maintain a minimum par amount greater than or equal to $25 million as of the next rebalancing date. In addition, each bond must have a minimum term to maturity and/or pre-refunded or call date greater than or equal to one calendar month to be included in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is a market-value weighted index, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated after the close on the last business day of each month. <br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and generally invests 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in securities that provide substantially similar exposure to the securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in municipal bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund generally holds municipal bond securities issued by the State of New York and its municipalities whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal and New York state income tax, the federal AMT and the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221; In addition, the Fund intends to invest any cash assets in one or more affiliated municipal money market funds, which may be advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a product of an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (&#8220;S&amp;P&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class, the fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class.<br /><br /><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices. The Fund invests a significant portion of its portfolio in municipal securities, which may be less liquid than taxable bonds.<br /><br /><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. The recent financial crisis has caused a decrease in the value and liquidity of many securities, including certain municipal securities, and has adversely affected many issuers of municipal securities and may continue to do so.<br /><br /><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /><b>Municipal Securities Risk. </b>Municipal securities can be significantly affected by political or economic changes as well as uncertainties in the municipal market related to taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. Municipal securities backed by current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets can be negatively affected by the inability to collect revenues for the project or from the assets.<br /><br /><b>New York Municipal Securities Risk.</b> Because the Fund invests substantially in New York municipal instruments, it is more exposed to the impact of negative political, economic and statutory factors within the State of New York than a fund that invests more widely.<br /><br /><b>Non-Diversification Risk. </b>The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets in securities issued by or representing a small number of issuers. As a result, the Fund&#8217;s performance may depend on the performance of a small number of issuers.<br /><br /><b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /><b>Tax Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund&#8217;s income will be exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, the federal AMT or the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221;<br /><br /><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br /><br /><b>Transportation Sector Risk. </b>The transportation sector may be adversely affected by economic changes, fuel prices, labor relations, insurance costs and government regulations.<br /><br /><b>Utilities Sector Risk. </b>The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight, and may be adversely affected by increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 6.45% in the 3rd quarter of 2009; the worst was -4.20% in the 4th quarter of 2010. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b>2680141318The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-09-30worst2010-12-31You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comPast performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.<b>Non-Diversification Risk. </b>The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets in securities issued by or representing a small number of issuers. As a result, the Fund&#8217;s performance may depend on the performance of a small number of issuers.<b>Non-Diversification Risk. </b>The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets in securities issued by or representing a small number of issuers. As a result, the Fund&#8217;s performance may depend on the performance of a small number of issuers.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesCaliforniaAMTFreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> SHORT-TERM NATIONAL AMT-FREE MUNI BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: SUB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares Short-Term National AMT-Free Muni Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of investment-grade U.S. municipal bonds with remaining maturities between one month and five years.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 26% of the average value of its portfolio.2680141318<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the S&amp;P Short Term National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index<sup>TM </sup>(the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the short-term investment-grade segment of the U.S. municipal bond market. As of December&nbsp;31, 2012, there were 2,298 issues in the Underlying Index. Components primarily include transportation and utilities companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes municipal bonds from issuers that are primarily state or local governments or agencies (including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and U.S. territories such as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam) such that the interest on each bond is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax (&#8220;AMT&#8221;). Each bond must have a rating of at least BBB- by Standard&nbsp;&amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services, Baa3 by Moody&#8217;s Investors Service, Inc. (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;), or BBB- by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;). A bond must be rated by at least one of the three rating agencies in order to qualify for the Underlying Index. For the avoidance of doubt, the lowest rating will be used in determining if the bond is investment-grade. Each bond must be denominated in U.S. dollars. Each bond in the Underlying Index must be a constituent of an offering where the original offering amount was at least $100 million. The bond must have a minimum par amount of $25 million to be eligible for inclusion. To remain in the Underlying Index, a bond must maintain a minimum par amount greater than or equal to $25&nbsp;million as of the next rebalancing date. In addition, each bond must have a remaining term to maturity and/or pre-refunded or call date that is less than or equal to five years and greater than or equal to one calendar month to be included in the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is a market-value weighted index, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated after the close on the last business day of each&nbsp;month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 80% of its assets in securities of the Underlying Index. The Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index, and in futures contracts, options on futures contracts, options and swaps, as well as cash and cash equivalents, including shares of municipal money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in municipal bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund will generally hold municipal bond securities issued by state and local municipalities whose interest payments are exempt from U.S. federal income tax, the federal AMT and the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221; In addition, the Fund intends to invest any cash assets in one or more affiliated municipal money market funds, which may be advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is a product of an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a subsidiary of McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (&#8220;S&amp;P&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk</b><b>. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, project types, group of project types, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk</b><b>. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk</b><b>. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk</b><b>. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices. The Fund invests a significant portion of its portfolio in municipal securities, which may be less liquid than taxable bonds.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk</b><b>. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. The recent financial crisis has caused a decrease in the value and liquidity of many securities, including certain municipal securities, and has adversely affected many issuers of municipal securities and may continue to do so.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Municipal Securities Risk</b><b>. </b>Municipal securities can be significantly affected by political or economic changes as well as uncertainties in the municipal market related to taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. Municipal securities backed by current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets can be negatively affected by the inability to collect revenues for the project or from the assets.<br/><br/><b>North American Economic Risk</b><b>. </b>The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tax Risk</b><b>. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund&#8217;s income will be exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, the federal AMT or the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on &#8220;net investment income.&#8221;<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk</b><b>. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>Transportation Sector Risk.</b> The transportation sector may be adversely affected by economic changes, fuel prices, labor relations, insurance costs and government regulations.<br/><br/><b>Utilities Sector Risk.</b> The utilities sector is subject to significant government regulation and oversight, and may be adversely affected by increases in fuel and operating costs, rising costs of financing capital construction and the cost of complying with U.S. federal and state regulations, among other factors.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December&nbsp;31)</b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 1.67% in the 1st&nbsp;quarter of 2009; the worst was -0.79% in the 4th quarter of 2010.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-03-31worst2010-12-31www.iShares.com1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)<b>Average Annual Total Returns<br/>(for the periods ended December&nbsp;31, 2012)After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2007-10-042008-11-05<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesShortTermNationalAMTFreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesMBSETF column period compact * ~</div>
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<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesMBSETF column period compact * ~</div>
2007-03-13You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> NATIONAL AMT-FREE MUNI BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: MUB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> 20+ YEAR TREASURY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: TLT&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective</b>The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than twenty years.<b>Fees and Expenses</b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b>82645103<b>Example.</b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover.</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 19% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies</b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of 20 or more years. As of December 31, 2012, there were 21 issues in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of greater than or equal to 20 years, are rated investment-grade and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks</b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk.</b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk.</b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk.</b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk.</b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk.</b> U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.<b>Performance Information</b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 29.15% in the 3rd quarter of 2011; the worst was -10.94% in the 1st quarter of 2009.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns</b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b>152007-09-0748851922002-07-22<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesNationalAMTFreeMuniBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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The iShares Core Total U.S. Bond Market ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of the total U.S. investment-grade bond market.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses <br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/> percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 110% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2011-09-30worst2009-03-31You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comThe following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of the total U.S. investment-grade bond market. As of December 31, 2012, there were 8,079 issues in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes investment-grade U.S. Treasury bonds, government-related bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed pass-through securities, commercial mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities that are publicly offered for sale in the United States. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include mortgage-backed pass-through and treasury securities, and industrials companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. The securities in the Underlying Index have $250 million or more of outstanding face value and have at least one year remaining to maturity, with the exception of amortizing securities such as asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, which have lower thresholds as defined by the index provider. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Certain types of securities, such as state and local government series bonds, structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating-rate securities and Eurobonds are excluded from the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index by investing approximately 90% of its assets in the bonds represented in the Underlying Index and in securities that provide substantially similar exposure to securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index, as well as in cash and high-quality, liquid short-term instruments, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>As of December 31, 2012, approximately 31.81% of the bonds represented in the Underlying Index were U.S. fixed-rate agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities. U.S. fixed-rate agency mortgage-backed pass-through securities are securities issued by entities such as the Government National Mortgage Association (&#8220;GNMA&#8221; or &#8220;Ginnie Mae&#8221;), the Federal National Mortgage Association (&#8220;FNMA&#8221; or &#8220;Fannie Mae&#8221;), and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (&#8220;FHLMC&#8221; or &#8220;Freddie Mac&#8221;) that are backed by pools of mortgages. Most transactions in fixed-rate mortgage-backed pass-through securities occur through standardized contracts for future delivery in which the exact mortgage pools to be delivered are not specified until a few days prior to settlement (&#8220;to-be-announced (TBA) transactions&#8221;). The Fund may enter into such contracts on a regular basis. The Fund, pending settlement of such contracts, will invest its assets in high-quality, liquid short-term instruments, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund will assume its pro rata share of the fees and expenses of any money market fund that it may invest in, in addition to the Fund&#8217;s own fees and expenses. The Fund may also acquire interests in mortgage pools through means other than such standardized contracts for future delivery.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> CORE TOTAL U.S. BOND MARKET ETF<br/>Ticker: AGG&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediShares20YearTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
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As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s NAV, trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk. </b>During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Custody Risk. </b>Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk. </b>During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Geographic Risk. </b>A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>High Portfolio Turnover Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities. High portfolio turnover (higher than 100%) may result in increased transaction costs to the Fund, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark-ups and other transaction costs on the sale of the securities and on reinvestment in other securities.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b>The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk. </b>Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. </b>The Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities, some of which may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Mortgage-backed securities are subject to call risk and extension risk. Because of these risks, mortgage-backed securities react differently to changes in interest rates than other bonds. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain mortgage-backed securities. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a TBA transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss.<br/><br/><b>Non-U.S. Issuers Risk. </b>Securities issued by non-U.S. issuers carry different risks from securities issued by U.S. issuers. These include differences in accounting, auditing and financial reporting standards, the possibility of expropriation or confiscatory taxation, adverse changes in investment or exchange control regulations, political instability, regulatory and economic differences, and potential restrictions on the flow of international capital. The Fund is specifically exposed to <b>North American Economic Risk</b>.<br/><br/> <b>Passive Investment Risk. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Reliance on Trading Partners Risk. </b>The Fund invests in countries whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>2013-03-31best2008-12-31worst2004-06-30The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 5.21% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -2.66% in the 2nd quarter of 2004.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.com<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>The expense information has been restated, as of the Fund&#8217;s most recent fiscal year end, to reflect current fees.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund Shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2003-09-22<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesCoreTotalUSBondMarketETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesCoreTotalU.S.BondMarketETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months endediSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> iBOXX $ HIGH YIELD CORPORATE BOND ETF <br/>Ticker: HYG&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<b>Investment Objective </b>The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, high yield corporate bonds.<b>Fees and Expenses </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Agency Debt Risk.</b> The Fund invests in unsecured bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, including the Federal National Mortgage Association (&#8220;Fannie Mae&#8221;) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (&#8220;Freddie Mac&#8221;). Bonds or debentures issued by government agencies are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the government agency issuing the bond or debenture and are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the federal government.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk.</b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Call Risk.</b> During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk.</b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in a particular sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sovereign entity or entities, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Custody Risk.</b> Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br/><br/><b>Extension Risk.</b> During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br/><br/><b>Financial Sector Risk.</b> Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk.</b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /><b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /><b>Industrials Sector Risk.</b> The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Liquidity Risk.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/><b>Market Trading Risk.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>North American Economic Risk.</b> The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk.</b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.<br/><br/><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk.</b> U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. <br /><br />You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.<b>Industry Concentration Policy.</b> The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Performance Information</b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/> (ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/> percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31)</b>The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 19% of the average value of its portfolio.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 7.04% in the 4th quarter of 2008; the worst was -2.15% in the 4th quarter of 2010. <br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>www.iShares.com1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Markit iBoxx<sup style="POSITION: relative; BOTTOM: 0.8ex; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline">&#174;</sup> USD Liquid High Yield Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which is a rules-based index consisting of liquid U.S. dollar-denominated, high yield corporate bonds for sale in the United States, as determined by the index provider. The Underlying Index is designed to provide a broad representation of the U.S. dollar-denominated liquid high yield corporate bond market. The Underlying Index is a modified market-value weighted index with a cap on each issuer of 3%. Bonds in the Underlying Index are selected using a rules-based criteria, as defined by the index provider. There is no limit to the number of issues in the Underlying Index, but as of December 31, 2012, the Underlying Index included approximately 791 constituents. The Underlying Index may include large-, mid- or small-capitalization companies, and components primarily include consumer services, financial, industrials, and oil and gas companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. <br /><br />Currently, the bonds eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index include U.S. dollar-denominated high yield corporate bonds that: (i) are issued by companies domiciled in countries classified as developed markets by the index provider; (ii) are rated sub-investment-grade by Fitch, Inc. (&#8220;Fitch&#8221;), Moody&#8217;s Investors Services (&#8220;Moody&#8217;s&#8221;) or Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services; (iii) are from issuers with at least $1 billion outstanding face value; (iv) have at least $400 million of outstanding face value; (v) have an original maturity date of less than 15 years; and (vi) have at least one year to maturity. <br /><br />BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. <br /><br />Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. <br /><br />BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index. <br /><br />The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the securities of the Underlying Index and in investments that provide substantially similar exposure to the securities in the Underlying Index. However, the Fund may at times invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund. <br /><br />The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received). <br /><br />The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Markit Indices Limited (&#8220;Markit&#8221;).<br /><br /><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>best2008-12-31worst2010-12-31<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br/><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)</b>After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.2007-01-05As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br /><br /> <b>Asset Class Risk. </b> Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br /><br /> <b>Call Risk</b><b>.</b> During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may &#8220;call&#8221; or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund&#8217;s income.<br /><br /> <b>Concentration Risk. </b> To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br /><br /> <b>Consumer Services Sector Risk. </b> The consumer services sector may be affected by changes in the domestic and international economy, exchange rates, competition, consumers&#8217; disposable income and consumer preferences.<br /><br /> <b>Credit Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br /><br /> <b>Custody Risk</b><b>.</b> Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.<br /><br /> <b>Extension Risk. </b> During periods of rising interest rates, certain obligations will be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline to the Fund&#8217;s income and potentially in the value of the Fund&#8217;s investments.<br /><br /> <b>Financial Sector Risk</b><b>.</b> Performance of companies in the financial sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. This sector has experienced significant losses in the recent past, and the impact of more stringent capital requirements and of recent or future regulation on any individual financial company or on the sector as a whole cannot be predicted.<br /><br /><b>Geographic Risk</b><b>.</b> A natural or other disaster could occur in a geographic region in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /> <b>High Yield Securities Risk. </b> Securities that are rated below investment grade (commonly referred to as &#8220;junk bonds,&#8221; including those bonds rated lower than &#8220;BBB-&#8221; by Standard &amp; Poor&#8217;s Ratings Services and Fitch, or &#8220;Baa3&#8221; by Moody&#8217;s), or are unrated, may be deemed speculative and more volatile than higher-rated securities of similar maturity.<br /><br /> <b>Income Risk. </b> The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br /><br /> <b>Index-Related Risk.</b> There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br /><br /> <b>Industrials Sector Risk. </b> The industrials sector may be affected by changes in the supply and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.<br /><br /> <b>Interest Rate Risk</b><b>.</b> An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br /><br /> <b>Issuer Risk</b><b>.</b> Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br /><br /> <b>Liquidity Risk</b><b>.</b> Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund&#8217;s returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.<br /><br /> <b>Management Risk</b><b>.</b> As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br /><br /> <b>Market Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br /><br /> <b>Market Trading Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br /><br /> <b>North American Economic Risk</b><b>.</b> The United States is Canada&#8217;s and Mexico&#8217;s largest trading and investment partner. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region, and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.<br /><br /> <b>Oil and Gas Sector Risk. </b> Companies in the oil and gas sector are affected by worldwide energy prices and exploration and production costs. Companies in the oil and gas sector may have significant operations in areas at risk for natural disasters, social unrest and environmental damage. These companies may also be at risk for increased government regulation and intervention, litigation, and negative publicity and perception.<br /><br /> <b>Passive Investment Risk</b><b>.</b> The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br /><br /> <b>Securities Lending Risk. </b> The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br /><br /> <b>Tracking Error Risk</b><b>.</b> Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. <b>BFA EXPECTS THAT THE FUND MAY EXPERIENCE HIGHER TRACKING ERROR THAN IS TYPICAL FOR SIMILAR INDEX EXCHANGE-TRADED FUNDS.</b><b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;).<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December 31) </b>The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 17.05% in the 2nd quarter of 2009; the worst was -15.51% in the 4th quarter of 2008. <br /><br />Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).<b>Average Annual Total Returns </b><br /><b>(for the periods ended December 31, 2012) </b>511602806282007-04-04<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.www.iShares.com1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2009-06-30worst2008-12-31After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesiBoxxHighYieldCorporateBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
iSHARES<sup>&#174;</sup> SHORT TREASURY BOND ETF<br/>Ticker: SHV&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stock Exchange: NYSE Arca<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesiBoxx$HighYieldCorporateBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
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<b>Investment Objective </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesGovernmentCreditBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
The iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities between one month and one year.<b>Fees and Expenses </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesiBoxx$HighYieldCorporateBondFund column period compact * ~</div>
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The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the &#8220;Trust&#8221;) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (&#8220;BFA&#8221;) (the &#8220;Investment Advisory Agreement&#8221;) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses.<br/><br/>You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Annual Fund Operating Expenses<br/>(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a<br/>percentage of the value of your investments)</b><b>Example. </b>This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund&#8217;s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:<b>Portfolio Turnover. </b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesGovernmentCreditBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
The Fund may pay transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or &#8220;turns over&#8221; its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund&#8217;s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund&#8217;s portfolio turnover rate was 95% of the average value of its portfolio.<b>Principal Investment Strategies </b>The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Barclays U.S. Short Treasury Bond Index (the &#8220;Underlying Index&#8221;), which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of between one and 12 months. As of December 31, 2012, there were 64 issues in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury securities that have a remaining maturity of between one and 12 months and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. Excluded from the Underlying Index are certain special issues, such as targeted investor notes, state and local government series bonds and coupon issues that have been stripped from bonds. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.<br/><br/>BFA uses a &#8220;passive&#8221; or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund&#8217;s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to &#8220;beat&#8221; the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued.<br/><br/>Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.<br/><br/>BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. &#8220;Representative sampling&#8221; is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity or credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.<br/><br/>The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before the fees and expenses of the Fund.<br/><br/>The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund&#8217;s total assets (including the value of the collateral received).<br/><br/>The Underlying Index is sponsored by an organization (the &#8220;Index Provider&#8221;) that is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund&#8217;s Index Provider is Barclays Capital Inc. or its affiliates (&#8220;Barclays&#8221;).<br/><br/><b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.<b>Summary of Principal Risks </b>As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund&#8217;s net asset value per share (&#8220;NAV&#8221;), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective.<br/><br/><b>Asset Class Risk. </b>Securities in the Underlying Index or in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets or other asset classes.<br/><br/><b>Concentration Risk. </b>To the extent that the Fund&#8217;s investments are concentrated in issuer or issuers, in a particular country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class, the Fund may be susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.<br/><br/><b>Credit Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is subject to the risk that debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.<br/><br/><b>Income Risk. </b>The Fund&#8217;s income may decline when interest rates fall. This decline can occur because the Fund must invest in lower-yielding bonds as bonds in its portfolio mature, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.<br/><br/><b>Index-Related Risk. </b>There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the Fund&#8217;s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected for a period of time, and may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its Shareholders.<br/><br/><b>Interest Rate Risk</b><b>. </b>An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.<br/><br/><b>Issuer Risk</b><b>. </b>Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.<br/><br/><b>Management Risk</b><b>. </b>As the Fund may not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that BFA&#8217;s investment management strategy may not produce the intended results.<br/><br/><b>Market Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns.<br/><br/> <b>Market Trading Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruption in the creation/redemption process of the Fund. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND&#8217;S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.<br/><br/><b>Passive Investment Risk</b><b>. </b>The Fund is not actively managed and BFA does not attempt to take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.<br/><br/><b>Securities Lending Risk. </b>The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the Fund&#8217;s loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of the collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.<br/><br/><b>Tracking Error Risk</b><b>. </b>Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund&#8217;s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities held in the Fund&#8217;s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences, transaction costs, the Fund&#8217;s holding of cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the Fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not. <br/><br/><b>U.S. Treasury Obligations Risk. </b>U.S. Treasury obligations may differ in their interest rates, maturities, times of issuance and other characteristics. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government may cause the value of the Fund&#8217;s U.S. Treasury obligations to decline.<b>Performance Information </b>The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Both assume that all dividends and distributions have been reinvested in the Fund. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Supplemental information about the Fund&#8217;s performance is shown under the heading Total Return Information in the Supplemental Information section of the Fund&#8217;s prospectus (the &#8220;Prospectus&#8221;). If BFA had not waived certain Fund fees during certain periods, the Fund&#8217;s returns would have been lower.The best calendar quarter return during the periods shown above was 1.23% in the 1st&nbsp;quarter of 2008; the worst was -0.02% in the 1st quarter of 2012.<br/><br/>Updated performance information is available at www.iShares.com or by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free).15<b>Average Annual Total Returns <br/>(for the periods ended December&nbsp;31, 2012)</b>4885192You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<b>Industry Concentration Policy. </b>The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund&#8217;s performance could trail that of other investments.The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund.1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) (toll free)www.iShares.comPast performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes.Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor&#8217;s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (&#8220;IRAs&#8221;).Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpensesTransposediSharesShortTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposediSharesShortTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the Example that follows:<div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsiSharesShortTreasuryBondETFBarChart column period compact * ~</div>
<b>Year by Year Returns (Years Ended December&nbsp;31)</b><div style="display:none">~ http://www.iShares.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposediSharesShortTreasuryBondETF column period compact * ~</div>
The iShares New York AMT-Free Muni Bond ETF (the &#8220;Fund&#8221;) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of investment-grade municipal bonds issued in the State of New York.The Fund&#8217;s total return for the three months ended2013-03-31best2008-03-31worst2012-03-312007-01-050.002000.0020.002000.0020.12910.11140.08340.13490.10.12360.10450.09460.12980.1050.15310.1291-0.02110.0652-0.03230.01990.01550.01290.02160.04340.03710.03350.04460.002000.0020.01480.03870.04620.01990.080.03280.02130.02710.0369-0.00070.10730.03690.01340.03730.02730.0260.04230.03280.04020.0290.02780.04490.750.0030.0509-0.030.00020.0249-0.01080.070.00380.0698-0.0548-0.02150.14720.0750.05150.07810.002000.0020.07810.06610.05060.0810.00150.06460.04930.04620.06710.06230.04640.04390.0648000.00151.040.00310.00180.0020.00430.01790.0220.01650.01570.02350.00810.02610.01790.01750.02730.01480.03840.0730.06640.00540.02220.01430.00310.00070.0309-0.01160.0015000.510.00150.1312-0.01860.06550.0810.02090.02090.01780.01360.02190.05470.04690.04240.05630.06170.05250.04770.06310.00180.074-0.02950.0015000.470.00150.02050.04450.02250.02650.1020.1802-0.06380.09290.15460.04060.04060.03410.02640.04160.07730.06580.05980.07860.05990.04690.04380.0605-0.00060.1223-0.05250.002000.0020.002000.0020.03640.02870.02360.03890.05060.03940.03670.05180.05380.04170.0390.05510.09120.07770.0590.09370.07390.05710.05320.07650.06880.05160.04860.07160.15-0.02120.00180.14210.08370.05420.08050.0912-0.01450.06020.0440.05610.05640.03640.1-0.00290.0844-0.06630.0025000.00020.00270.0015000.00150.2008-0.08390.09570.21580.04090.02230.01510.01450.02590.05230.03820.03650.05670.04090.03280.02650.0420.05310.03850.03690.05770.07560.06840.08890.08810.08840.0750.06830.0891-0.00840.1581-0.06660.07350.05290.05450.05880.02230.120.002000.0025.810.00070.0383-0.00770.0012000.00120.08320.07010.05380.08470.12150.10520.09460.12540.0015000.00150.050.07430.05930.010.03950.0372-0.00340.12110.09130.08890.1168-0.00560.0902-0.07790.11680.10170.07560.11850.0820.06360.05920.08740.06280.04450.04280.06520.50.09890.21680.0832-0.02070.1537-0.05460.0025000.0025-0.01420.10190.01530.11880.07730.00410.0829-0.05660.07730.07730.06170.07670.05860.05850.05550.05960.05840.05840.05540.05810.00250000.002500.00250.090.06-0.00940.10580.0140.10850.06140.00190.0704-0.04850.0025000.0025-0.01990.11580.01480.10290.06460.00130.0645-0.0420.06460.06380.05260.06340.05450.05430.05170.05690.05440.05430.05170.05640.10.0025000.00250.260.04330.01090.0280.00940.00380.0167-0.00790.00940.00940.00960.01250.02630.02520.02330.02950.06140.06140.05040.06520.05490.05480.05210.05670.05470.05460.05190.05570.0008000.00080.0015000.00150.04040.02630.04210.05780.04430.04150.05950.0510.03670.03520.05330.03250.0210.02290.03360.0960.07420.08180.09720.07750.06160.05740.07850.01760.08870.08460.00850.10140.3377-0.21530.09260.3360.03251.1-0.02920.2915-0.10940.190.04010.02170.04140.06570.0590.05130.06280.07580.0404-0.00110.0521-0.0266-0.00240.0704-0.02150.06620.03980.06380.0850.04550.04550.03630.02950.04820.06060.0440.04750.05990.0610.04780.04450.0620.005000.005-0.23890.40680.12070.05890.13830.13830.11170.08890.14150.07670.0450.04580.08410.06790.03720.03880.07280.190.02220.1705-0.15510.0015000.00150.950.02770.0020.00160.00070.00020.00020.00020.00020.00150.00640.00460.00440.00770.01370.00980.00940.0150.02990.14-0.00010.0123-0.0002The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -2.11%.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.30%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.02%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.38%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.07%.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U. S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.18%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.06%.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.18%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.29%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.07%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.84%.The expense information has been restated, as of the Fund’s most recent fiscal year end, to reflect current fees.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.On October 23, 2012, the Fund’s Underlying Index changed from The BofA Merrill Lynch 10+ Year US Corporate & Government Index℠ to the current Underlying Index, the Barclays U.S. Long Government/Credit Bond Index. Historical index data prior to October 23, 2012 is that of The BofA Merrill Lynch 10+ Year US Corporate & Government Index℠; data after that date is that of the Barclays U.S. Long Government/Credit Bond Index.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.56%.Formerly, iBoxx® $ Liquid Investment Grade Index.The Fund’s total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -2.07%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.41%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.19%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.13%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 0.38%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -2.92%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.11%.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.24%.The Fund’s total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was 2.22%.Formerly, iBoxx® $ Liquid High Yield Index.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund Shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.The Fund's total return for the three months ended March 31, 2013 was -0.01%.After-tax returns in the table above are calculated using the historical highest individual U.S. federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state or local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to tax-exempt investors or investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts ("IRAs"). Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares are calculated assuming that an investor has sufficient capital gains of the same character from other investments to offset any capital losses from the sale of Fund shares. As a result, Fund returns after taxes on distributions and sales of Fund shares may exceed Fund returns before taxes and/or returns after taxes on distributions.